Revealed: The highest paid languages in finance

Financially savvy speakers of Chinese are best placed to bag the top salary packages available in the British financial sector, according to recent research by job search engine, Adzuna.co.uk.

Conducted in January 2017, the study examined data from over 1 million live job vacancies to analyse recruiters requirements for language skills within the UK finance sector.

Chinese speakers see the highest salaries

The average salary for finance jobs requesting Chinese speakers was £41,573 across the UK - an average £7,647 higher than the average pay promised to professional Chinese speakers! The second and third most lucrative languages in the industry were German (£38,512) and French (£36,759) respectively.

Top 5 paying languages in finance

1. Chinese - £41,573

2. German - £38,512

3. French - £36,759

4. Arabic - £35,908

5. Portuguese - £35,550

French and German are most in demand

Although French and German speakers just missed out on the salary top spots, they were still the most sought after languages. With 491 finance vacancies in the UK asking for French speakers and 480 requesting German speakers, these languages offer great pay as well as a wealth of opportunities.

In spite of the fact that Britain is due to leave the EU in just over a year, these were not the only European languages in high demand. Spanish and Italian also made the top of the list, seeing a combined total of 446 vacancies across the UK.

Languages worth more with finance skills

A salary premium for working in tech was seen in almost every language. Chinese topped the tables again earning a whopping £7,647 more than the average salary of all Chinese-speaking roles. Portuguese followed closely behind with a premium of £6,745.

Surprisingly Japanese was the sole language to not see any premiums. Despite being the highest paid language of 2017, the average salary for finance jobs was £395 lower than all Japanese roles. According to our study from last year, the tech industry is where this language is most valued with Japanese speakers earning up to double the pay of their non-tech Japanese speaking counterparts.

London the land of opportunity?

It’s well known that working in London will tend to give you a bigger pay check than those living outside of the capital. Italian speakers who worked in finance and also lived in London saw premiums of £8,103, when compared to those who lived further afield and German speakers could earn an extra £9,110 if willing to move to the big city.